I've been listening to Legend of Mana's soundtrack non stop, it's so damn good I can't get enough. The dungeon/cave theme (called "earth painting" and sometimes "colored earth") is my favorite by far.

I don't quite understand why Legend tends to be considered inferior to its predecessors. The main story lines are fantastic, with the Jumi race's story being my favorite. The side stories are also really charming, I especially liked the penguin armada and the weird love story that came with it. The gameplay is really smooth, and flows much better than Seiken Densetsu 3's clunky combat system. It doesn't have as much depth, but if I'm being honest I'd take better flow over more depth any day. To say it's not better than its predecessors is one thing, but its not inferior at all.